The jasper colored twins were Jay, Pence, the topaz twins Toni and Paula, the golden pair
Giselle and Gretchen (the daughters of Abdul and Martha) and their half sisters the Lazuli
colored Laura and Zulema (Abdul and Ingrid's children), and the returned (but
unquestioned) Carnelian colored Casandra and Lily, Maddex and Whitney's girls (Maddex's
absence not even thought about).
Zelipe, being the odd one out, the pale pink wolf boy kept his distance from the whole
thing, watching TV for a bit, then choosing to play Bart and Jenny's Wii since there was no
line at the moment.
The lupman pups all ate like pigs wolfing down their ice cream. The two sets of
quadruplets politely said nothing (except Nane who just HAD to get one crack in). Lupman
were known for hyper organized families and convoluted mating structure, not table
manners.
Whitney admonished her daughters for their behavior, while Abdul let his twins pretty do
as they wished in this instance. 'I'm just lucky we have pantries the size of a warehouse.'
Then again, given how big Lupman were, they required more calories to function, and
Leoman required even more!
Gargoyles didn't eat, theories of their power source ranged from solar beams to
geothermal energy. Dragons could eat anything, -anything-, bones, plants, meat, there
were even tales of dragons who had become hermits who survived on a diet of rocks!
Felman due to their size were below humans on the need for intact, likely what had helped
their species somehow manage to survive despite their small numbers (dragons owed their
small numbers due to more than a few wars on the losing side, and a low reproductive rate
or some even theorized had lost the biological -need- to reproduce).
When the extermination of the Pack's supply of Blood Ripple ice cream, the pups quickly
turned their attention again to the idea of having a expedition to the edge of the pack's
territory.
The Omegas were the silver Martha (who was not present keeping an eye on Kaylee's
children), the blue and gold Abdul (who was the least mutated of all the Omega only
having two tails and a double wolf hood), silver and blue Maddex, and the blue and silver
Ryan who was Maddex's brother, and of course Whitney who was the only one besides
Abdul who only had one head (double she did have double of most everything else, and
was silver with red-orange highlights and had red-orange hair while the rest of the
Omegas were 'baled.').
Let Martha the duel headed wolves only had one awareness both their heads wired to the
same brain.
The gem twins of course still wanted to go on their adventure even after the ice cream.
Even more so now that there were wound-up.
There was some quick debate on who should stay with Zelipe to keep an eye on him.
Whitney and Abdul were logical since they only had one head to keep eyes on one pup, but
their children commanded they go with them.
This left Ryan (in what could be considered a waste of resources) the only one without
pups (much to his humiliation since he had been intended to be Martha's true made before
convolution had ended up making them all husbands to Martha), to stay with Zelipe…
Ryan's job proved quite easy almost boring as Zelipe spent the time using the Wii which he
normally was too meek to ask about using.
SO Whitney, Maddex, Abdul, played host to six pups, (and only five heads to share between
them). The double quadruplets after a quick discussion among themselves decided to tag
along. The omegas were actually relieved rather than worried. Tano and Maja, in spite of
being the exact same age as their siblings (if by a few seconds) were often more mature
and take charge than the rest, and Nane seemed to be not interested in causing trouble
this hike (they were going to have to take that girl to a doctor, her attitude was NOT
normal Leoman behavior).
Collecting dried meat from the pantry (over the protests of the pups wanting something
more fancy until Abdul and Whitney convinced them this was more like a 'real' hike this
way) the squad of three adults and fourteen children left out the pack door… their hugs
numbers of course scarring Jack and Marcine into having The Herd scatter… they had no
way to know course that the wolves weren't after them today.
As for the expedition itself, it was a nearly perfectly straight line from the Big Bad Wolf
Pack Manor to as far as the Pack legally owned.
+++++++
Trinity and Kimberley meanwhile on their off shift played poker. Being Gallery Wolves and
present for the Dare that created the original statues wolves, were the only ones aware
how Sunny, Luna, and Sarah had not always been statues. They had been the 'single she-
wolf club.' Trinity and Kimberley did however decide to mix things up and play their card
game in front of the statues, including a few as mock players.
"BUt if they're married to the Monkey Prince, they aren't single, and aren't part of the club
right?" Kimberley asked.
Trinity shrugged, "I'm through trying to convince them otherwise, if this is what they want,
I'm not going to force them one way or the other."
The five statues all continued to sit still and silence. The goddess' of food and the moon
hugging each other, while the sun and dawn had their shoulders on each other, and the
Monkey Prince in the middle grinning at it all.
Sarah knew it would take just a thought to leave this still world… to go back to being
among them. BUt it felt so strangely interesting to be silently observing them rather than
feeling trapped or crippled like she figured she should be feeling. Moving about this way
and that, chaotically changing from one second to the next. And Sarah and the others
found themselves again wondering 'Was I ever really one of them?'
++++++++
Big Bad Island for her part, remained peaceful and mostly silent. Save for the giggling of
two fairies born from the souls of Eve and Eve The Next killed by Kurse to expand her
power to cataclysmic levels. Their island's care taker (which Marie-Eliza knew to be her
without she liked it or not) was not there, but they'd keep the island looking pretty and
peaceful until the loves decided to return.
It remained the fever dream beautiful landscape it had become following Kurse's death and
Marie-Eliza taking her place in the nexus of power left empty by Kurse's destruction (since
had never been alive, death felt like an odd choice of words).
Marie-Eliza wondered if she and her mother should retire there, while getting permission
from the Pack of course… Marie-Eliza figured she could cause the least damage there with
the unequaled power she had. She figured she'd be the least tempted there to make
herself queen of the world and end all drug lords, slave traffic, and war with one gesture.
Her story was finally coming to a close. She had considered for a time turning her audience
into copies of her, and spreading out their shared power among the new Mare-Eliza's, thus
making it less concentrated, and thus less likely to be abused and thus making herself less
powerful in the process.
She could simply WISH AWAY her power she'd do so, but it had become an integrated part
of her, impossible to separate from herself, turning other beings into doubles of herself
was the ONLY way to spread out the power so she wouldn't be in danger of becoming a
dictator. They'd have to have her exact identity for her power to accept them, they'd have
to cease to exist as the people they were… like the witches had done to their innocent
victims in the name of making the world fair…
But even though she knew it was for the greater good, and to save herself from a self
imposed exile, and to save the world from her if she surrendered to temptation and chose
to 'fix' the world with a flick of her wrist, and then likely to challenge God/The
Truth/Jehovah/YHWH for it's/his/her throne … She couldn't do it.
She remembered each and every one of the people who the witches had wiped out of
existence. She remembered their names, their faces, their voices. And now it was like those
people had never been born for all the difference it made! She couldn't bring herself to do
it. Even if it was to possibly save the world from herself, she couldn't bring herself to
commit murder.
So she simply continued the story which was reaching it's conclusion.
+++++++++
Father Draco's eyes shot open. And Officer Linus Sure's heads snapped awake. The two
stood up together. Vatican turned to look at them. Free meanwhile, sensing her masters'
deaths (but masters by her own choice this time rather than forced upon her, and that
made all the difference) would have cried if she had the tear ducts for it. But that was
something Gargoyles could never do, let alone experience taste … or smell… Free hadn't
thought about this price since her transformation, since given all things, it had been a
small price to pay.
Mal'Akh started, as Joella and Lark turned to look.
"Lady Joella, we are here to ssserve/serve you." Said the super naga and the former dragon.
Mal'Akh looked in despair, figuring Joella's command hadn't worked, not having a clue
about the clash between Joella's command and Death's geass that had nearly left the two
comatose for the rest of their lives. And the only way for a compromise to be reached was
to make serving Joella what they WANTED!
Lark turned to Running Bear's corpse and shook it's arm, trying to get him awake. When
nothing happened, Mal'Akh and Joella were at a struggle of which one was going to tell
her… Joella finally came beside her adopted sibling and whispered in her ear.
Lark simple listened. She lost the closest thing he had had to a mother her entire life, and
now the man whom the witches had set up near demigod status among their creations and
followers was dead too…
Lark couldn't take it anymore… she broke down in tears.
+++++++++
"And that was how Sister Marie Cruz and Sister Kathrine would find them…" Marie-Eliza
said, "The two girls crying, the cub finding herself torn on weather to accept Lark was a
person or not, Free al so grieving, and Vatican, Father Draco and Linus helping Joella in any
way they could … "
"Better than she expected I guess…" Lawrence said.
"Marie Cruz at this point didn't know WHAT to expect… she was just happy she didn't end
up with another fight on her hands, and wrongly concluded that the Witch's Dare didn't
turn her friends into enemies, not knowing about the clash with Death's geass.
No one who cared for the witches were present when their bodies were burned, not even
their animal familiars, who had no value in their masters' corpses. And as I said, Herodias
would seek Roselia as a new master, if even more carefully and benign than with Goldwyn,
and Lilith would chose to simply commit suicide to be with her master in death.
Running-Bear's funeral, given his connection with the witches, was given a funeral display
that would make the ghosts of some heads of state jealous, and personally I think they
were working out their grief via their adopted Grandfather since they weren't able to say
goodbye to the witches."
Lawrence said, "Like Joseph Stalin's funeral… people were in tears when he died… He was
a murderous dictator but had such good publicity that no one found out what a monster he
was until later… "
Marie-Eliza nodded. Betty smiled to see her nephew was still in there somewhere
underneath all those layers of muscle.
"Running-Bear's funeral would be fit for a king. They even erected a small memorial of him
on top of his grave in the witches backyard.
Over the next three hundred years, the Jewish Glendale Pride and the Witch Pride would
convert and intermarry, the Witch Pride adopting the name of the Glendales as the evil the
witches had done overshadowed the good, until the salem witch trials were reexamined
and historical revisionists choose the witches had been just chaotic, not evil.
The natives of course were just overjoyed to have their family members back, even if some
would have to grow up again. Glendale's people, free of the witches' fog over their minds,
realized full well what the witches had done, and had been doing."
Samantha asked her fellow former Glass. "What about the Mayor and his wife/daughter?"
"Not everyone was returned to how they were, some were simple too integrated into what
they became inside the witches' sphere of influence. The Mayor now believed his wife had
died in child birth and his daughter had been trying on her mother's dresses... given the
sheer insanity that had come close to devouring them all, it was a subconscious reflex to
keep them from slipping into madness."
"Sunnydale Syndrome." Lawrence said.
"Huh?" Everyone looked at him.
"A popular vampire slayers show took place in a town called Sunnydale. The average
person remained almost fanatically unaware of the monsters that walked right past them
and tried to eat them. It became a running gag."
"Well, the effects of the witches magic had some thing to do with all of the warps as well,
not just self inflicted obviousness.
"And Marie Cruz was more interested, perhaps due to death's geass, in sorting out what to
do with the witches small army of followers whom Marie and her friends had also killed
some off... Not to mention killed the witches themselves even if it was by due process...
Only Joella and their pure devotion to her will prevented them from trying to pull as many
people as possible and themselves into death to join their masters.
Herodias' litters and descendants would be hunted down for decades until the idea of
witches and familiars became popular fiction and animal rights groups became powerful
enough to cease the tradition the Pack had come to take part in with festivity."
++++++++++
Mal'Akh explained to the pups, "Joella was an orphan girl the witches took in, I don't know
where she came from, maybe the witches felt some sympathy towards her having lost their
parents themselves. ... After the wicked witches were gone, the witches cursed some of the
hunters to be her loyal servants."
"The game." Jenny said.
"The game." Mal'Akh replied, not really able to see the pups from where she was laying
down on the bed but she could hear them well enough even if she couldn't provide eye
contact... "The witches wanted Joella to want for nothing, no matter who they had to take it
from to provide to her... Joella I think never once got a clue how her foster parents were
wicked."
"She didn't know they were witches?" Kevin asked.
"Oh she knew they were witches, she just didn't know they were wicked witches. She
thought they were good, so she tried her hardest to always be good too... "
All the pups looked at each other confused at the paradox (to them) presented. "She
became good because she thought bad people were good people?" Marcy asked first.
"Yes."
"My head hurts." Marcy lamented.
"I remember when her, Lark, one of her 'adopted' sisters, and me went back the witches'
house after the wicked witches were dead... everyone greeted her like a princess of a
kingdom after the king and queen had died... I remember the hunters talking about
making those who the witches had changed back to normal again, and how it would hurt
more people to do that if they did."
"How's that work?" Jenny tilted her head.
"I never understood that part to be honest. But I think Joella was happy that her 'adopted
brothers and s-sisters' weren't going away... " Mal'Akh shuddered at the mention of
sisters.
"Something wrong?" Marcy asked.
"It's nothing." Mal'Akh said not wanting to share some things with pups.
++++++++++++
Once upon a time in the 1980s...
There was a popular toyline invented called 'My Little Pony.' It was popular enough that a
cartoon show based on the toys was produces by 1986. While a transparent marketing
tool, it kept children entertained and happy.
Also once upon a time in the 1980s there was a little girl in Glendale and her parents. That
girl was totally in love with the franchise and their parents spoiled her as much as their
savings would allow. Just glade to see her happy.
She had been riding along on the sidewalk and was distracted by a truck carrying horses
when she ran over a little boy's action figure of the super hero the Human Torch.
Now this boy's family was NOT as well off as the little girl's, and the action figure had been
his sole christmas present. The little girl, ignorant of how others kids didn't have as many
toys as her, still stopped when she realized what she had done and saw the broken plastic
defender of truth and justice and offered one of her many plastic ponies as compensation.
Now this little boy, he was not used to people apologizing when something bad happened
to him. He looked at the toy, and the girl, and thought she was being mean.
His thoughts on his favorite super hero, and his mind burning with rage as only a child
knows, he snarled out, "Transform or Dare!"
"Transform or Dare?" However the game did not allow for something that obvious, it was
simply too easy for something like that, the victim had to consciously chose.
"I'm gonna make you something! Or I'm gonna make ya do something! Or ya get both!"
Realizing this must have been the game that big girls played or something like it, 'truth or
dare' she replied, "Okay I chose Dare."
Red in the face and tears coming down his face he roared, "SET YER HOUSE ON FIRE! AND
KEEP SETTIN' IT ON FIRE UNTIL IT ALL BURNS DOWN!"
The little girl gasped as the overwhelming thought, the overwhelming need filled her head,
'I've gotta set my house on fire until it burns down!' She thought with the same force as
someone else thinks, 'I need to breath!'
The little boy, Mitch, had gotten the turn from his big brother, Mack, had used it so Mitch
would act as a look out and courier for when Mitch bought, traded, or sold his narcotics,
and had phrased it so Mitch could never use the game on Mack!
Mack had gotten it from his group of friends, who had used it on each other to give
themselves manhood lengths that would made horses envious.
They had gotten it from a teenage girl who dared them to never touch another person
unless they wanted to be touched by them without being forced or intimidated to.
She had gotten it from a lazy pervert who she rejected to have sex with the nearest man
whenever she heard a word that had eleven or more letters. Her family had ultimately
learned Japanese and moved to Japan, because the words spoken there were in symbols,
not letters.
The lazy bum had gotten it from a nerd back when the lazy bum was a jock and the nerd
made it so every time the jock was a jerk to someone he'd gain five pounds of lard.
The nerd had gotten it from his grandfather on the old man's death bed to write his
grandpa's confession, who had used the game and the loopholes in the game to always
have the turn returned to him, and to make women, men, children and the infantile to pose
for him before turning into nude marble, bronze, what-have-you, statues. The cycle went
on and on!
The little girl with all the ability to resist as one has the ability one has to make their own
heart stop beating by thinking about it, immediately went home.
The little girl at once hunted through the family kitchen for matches, and immediately used
each and everyone to set everything in the dinning room on fire, and using the flames of
the dinning room set everything in the living room on fire. And unable to stop herself,
without any hesitation, set on fire her own room, and her precious collection of ponies.
Her parents had been in the front yard, and had seen their child go in, (and while having
seen the exchange between the two children hadn't heard what had been said), and only
when the flames started to come out of the windows did they realize what had been going
on, only by then did the smoke finally drift into their senses on that fine summer's day.
They found their child inside, still trapped by the will of the game, setting everything on
fire she could see, she had begun to set fire to the family album when they finally found
her and swiftly took her outside. Child and parents their lungs and flesh seared by the
smoke and flames, were outside the house in time to see the flames start up even more
intensely. Immediately the girl began to try and set fire to the outside out of the house
even as the insides turned to reach the outside!
They managed to stop her, and demanded to know what she was doing, she replied in a
warped happy voice that she had to turn down the house. They spanked her, AFTER calling
the fire department of course. But in that moment, the house went beyond the point of
being able to be saved, and the turn ran it's course. The girl instantly screamed and broke
down crying (which she hadn't while being spanked) and in total hysteria blurted out a
broken babble of what had happened. When her parents heard her describe 'Transform or
Dare' they could barely believe it, not WANTING to believe it, doing their best to ignore that
the curse was very likely real and hoping it would just go away when ignored like most
things.
Seeing her house burn down, the little girl thought it was the end of the world. Her parents
managed to gather that it was not their child's fault. The little boy who had 'started' all this
had run away in fear when the reality what he had done caught up with him.
The little girl's mind spun at what had happened. And wished with all her heart and soul
that things could be better. The rules of the game said you could not use a turn on
yourself.
The parents hugged their child. Insurance companies did not acknowledge the existence of
the game. Everyone in town knew that. It far too easy, even for those who knew the game
was real, to commit fraud. The parents own fear and grief stricken minds felt dread in their
minds, the police or someone else might be able to tell that the fire had been self set, on
one would blame their child, for that they were grateful. But arson would be at the
forefront of everyone's minds, and the most logical culprit to be the parents themselves, in
particular since they had renewed and upgraded their insurance of light of a small
electrical fire that happened earlier from one too many power strips being used from one
outlet.
Everything they owned had gone up in flames, they had no idea of the existence of Madam
Serenity or that the police may or may not direct them to her, even if they had believed
anyone in turn would believe them about the curse. (Only their absolute trust in their child
allowed them to realize the truth).
The parents hug their child as she hugged them, all three crying. Despair gripped them.
Then the little girl said something unexpected to the parents. And then said, "Pwease
choose twansform."
This startled the parents, then looked at each other, both thinking the same thing, 'What
do we have left to loose?'
They said almost at the same time, "Transform."
"Change inta real My Little Ponies, who live on a magic farm where nothing really bad
happens, where we can all have fun and be happy, so we can all be My Little Ponies like on
TV and we can all live happily ever after!"
The parents shuddered as did their little girl.
Somewhere at the same time Madam Serenity was knocked out cold, lucky to have not
been driving at the time. This made it near impossible for her to track them. Weather this
was due to the game obeying their need for privacy to ensure their 'happily ever after' or
simple the back lash of needing to alter fate all the way till the end of time, was anyone's
guess.
Logically, the game could have simply turned them into toys, but she had said 'magic farm'
and had said to 'live' happily ever after, both of which negated this interpretation.
The parents clothes vanished.
Besides the openings on their heads they completely sealed up. Their skin became
incredibly smooth. Their body shapes completely changed. Their hair shifted into
something resembling a horses' manes. And their tail bones sprout real tails that vaguely
resemble a horse's. The father's skin became a uniform pink, while the other's magenta.
Their hands and feet became identical stumps. They felt their center of gravity shift, but
stand up on what was now their hind legs easily enough. Their faces pushed into a cartoon
version of a horse's muzzle. Their ears became triangular and moved to the top of their
heads. They blinked once, and their eyes became huge, with long eyelashes and matching
colored eyes and their hair turned to a lighter shade of their skin.
Finally, a pair of stars (a second star to the right) appeared on the father's rump and a
valentine heart within a heart formed on the mother's rump.
They became about half the size they had been before. The two new ponies looked at each
other in silent awe and then nuzzled their daughter. Within seconds, the same
transformation had come over her, but purple with a white and pink wheel on her rear.
Feeling a pure and overwhelming draw, the three ponies walked away from the burning
down house, not really mattering anymore.
No one paid the doll shaped horses any mind, they simply kept marches down the side
walk and people made way for them, then they walked out into the wilderness and
predatory animals merely turned a blind eye to them. They kept walking until they were
nearly on the very edge of Glendale's city limits and just stopped.
They nuzzled at the ground, and out of th ground came a pink and white farm house
shaped in the style of a child's playset both to scale of their actual pony size and not made
just for appearance.
"It's beautiful Never-Star." Said of one the two larger girl ponies.
"It is Valentines." Nodded the pink life size My LIttle Pony.
They then nuzzled the smaller My LIttle Pony with them, "Thank you Fate. It really is the
best."
"You're welcome," She nuzzled back.
The three My Little Ponies after that settled into their new home. What became the most
shocking was how they could hold and manipulate objects with their front hooves even
though they had no fingers through some form of limited telekinesis.
They found they didn't need to go the bathroom, and didn't have the openings even if they
wanted. They could eat, but nothing ever came out, and their never gained weight. 'Guess
happily ever after doesn't need bathrooms or obesity.' Thought Never-Star calmly to
herself.
The tools that came with the farm house proved easy to use for them, and the soil and
plants proved very corporative.
A month later, Valentines made a lament about missing her parents (Fate's grandparents).
And not five minutes later, the old couple had found the farm where no one else had. They
were shocked to say the least about what had happened to their daughter, son in law and
granddaughter.
Fate begged them to join them... and the old couple, well past retirement age and secretly
the old having the first signs of cancer... the two agreed. And in moments they had
became a light blue and cyan colored My Little Pony with a heads up coin and flower on
their rears.
They welcomed Lucky and Daisy back into their family.
When Lucy, Daisy, and Fate had discussed a few years later how they'd like something
interesting to happen, that night a couple failed bank robbers during a half hazard get
away stumbled on the farm, and not sure what to do pigged out and tried to steal anything
valuable they found (which wasn't that much not finding any money), before Lucky and
Daisy found them. One of the robbers shot Lucky in the head, the bullet slid off her like it
was a rain drop.
Then the criminals made a break for it but where cut off by Fate who tackled them to the
floor.
She told them she'd let them go if they'd work on the farm for a while to make up for the
trouble they caused. When the robbers calmed down enough they agreed. And the black
and white ponies, Night (with a white moon symbol) and Day (with a black sun symbol)
joined the farm.
The two quickly agreed with each other their lives here beat being criminals or going to jail
and their lives as human criminals soon felt like just a bad dream they once had and their
lives as My Little Ponies became their only reality the more they wished not remember their
former lives.
Other friends and family found their way to the Farm, many agreed to become part of their
family, some did not, and woke up in their heads remembering every single detail but not
feeling like disturbing their loved one's happiness.
Then came the boy who had started the whole mess, having found them and wanting to be
forgiven. And he didn't want to go back to Mack.... And that was how a red pony with a
jewel on her rear came to be named Ruby.
When Never-Star thought about what it must have been like for Valentines to give birth to
Fate and dearly wanting to experience that for herself, she spent the next eleven months
pregnant and gave birth to Fate's 'Twin' Destiny who continued to grow until she was Fate's
age.
And in twenty years none of them showed any signs of aging. She had said 'happily ever
after' after all. They couldn't 'live' happily 'ever after' if they died.
Then Destiny wanted to know more about the outside world without leaving home.
Then the wolf pack expedition got lost... and met with a purple My Little Pony who
introduced herself as Destiny and asking them politely if they wanted to chat for a little bit.